Spiral ovens for cooking food products include a cooking surface in the form of pervious conveyor belt for conveying the food products through a cooking chamber in a helical path. A heat source, such as steam, conventional convection and/or forced convection, is provided within the cooking chamber for cooking the food products. Spiral cooking ovens generally have a small footprint while providing a relatively long processing path. However, airflow in such spiral cooking ovens are often impeded and do not directly impact the food products within the cooking chamber. As a result, the food products are subjected to longer cooking cycles which reduces product throughput. Additionally, airflow in spiral cooking ovens is typically unidirectional which limits the ability to brown food products efficiently and often results in browning only occurring on one side of the product. For some food products, browning on a single surface of the food product is acceptable. However, for many food products such as, for example, meat, poultry and bakery products, browning on both sides of the product is desirable.
Continuous cooking ovens include a cooking surface in the form of a pervious conveyor belt for conveying products through a cooking chamber in a linear path. A heat source, such as steam, conventional convection and/or forced convection, is provided within the cooking chamber for cooking the food products. Linear continuous cooking ovens generally provide an environment which promotes uniform color and texture development across the conveyor belt. However, the length and efficiency of linear cooking ovens is limited by space considerations within the production facility.
There is a need or desire for a continuous cooking oven system that efficiently cooks and browns food.
There is a further need or desire for a continuous cooking oven system that occupies less space within a production facility.